_____________________________________________________________________ Current Notes View on 1st September from Whitworth Street after external work was completed. The Journal of the Manchester Astronomical Society September 2011 _____________________________________________________________________ Contents Opening remarks. Page 2 Editor – Barry Henshall Library News Page 2 Barry Henshall Public Lectures 2011/2012 Page 2 Barry Henshall Out and About With the Manchester Astronomical Society Page 3 Tony Cross A Thursday evening review Page 4 Barry Henshall The 17th Century interpretation of Stellar Magnitudes Page 7 Michael Gilligan The Red Planet - Some Notes about Mars before the Space Age. Page 10 Cliff Meredith Supernova 1987A Page 14 More notes on white light solar observing Page 15 Kevin Kilburn Picture Gallery Page 21 Officers and Council, 2010—2011 Page 23 Cover Photograph; View on 1 Sept from Whitworth street after external work was completed. Mike Oates 1 Opening Remarks At a Thursday meeting soon after the issue of the June edition of Current Notes it was decided, after considerable discussion, that an attempt should be made to publish at a more regular interval than has been the case during the recent past. Four issues per year were decided upon. I must admit it has been a struggle to collect sufficient articles to warrant publication but, on this occasion, we have been successful. A heart felt thank you to those members who have provided articles. However, if we are going to continue and publish an issue at the end of the year then I will need your help, no matter how small. At the moment the cupboard is bare, so to speak. Library News The following have been donated to the library by Cliff Meredith: - Observing Guide to Variable Stars – A Beginners Guide to Making Variable Star Observations published by the British Astronomical Association. The Planets: - A 3-DVD set by the History Channel The Inner Planets – Mercury & Venus The Earth & the Moon, Mars – The Red Planet & Jupiter – The Giant Planet. Saturn – Lord of the Rings, The Outer Planets. The Universe: - A 3-DVD set by the History Channel Explore the Edges of the Universe – Series One. Public Lectures 2011/2012 The public lectures will be held between October and March (excluding December) at 7:30pm on the 3rd Thursday of the month. All lectures will be held in the John Dalton Building, Manchester Metropolitan University, located opposite the BBC on Oxford Road. The Presidential Lecture will be at 7.30pm and held in the Sackville Street Building. 20th October 2011 Kopel Memorial Lecture. “The Hunt for Earth” given by Eamonn Kerins. Eamonn is an astrophysicist and lecturer based at the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, part of the School of Physics & Astronomy within the Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences at the University of Manchester. 17th November 2011 "100,000 Not Out" by Tony Markham Society for Practical Astronomy. Tony is one of only four people in the UK to have made over 100,000th visual estimates of variable stars. 2 15th December 2011 Presidential Lecture “The Birth of Astrophotography” by Barry Henshall 19th January 2012 "Panspermia" by Prof. Chandra Wickramasinghe Prof. Chandra Wickramasinghe is Professor and Director of the Cardiff Centre for Astrobiology, Cardiff University Honorary Professor, University of Glamorgan 16th February 2011 “Observing the Moon” by Bill Leatherbarrow, Director of the BAA Lunar Section. Bill is an enthusiastic visual observer of the Moon and planets. He is also interested in using modern high-resolution imaging of the lunar surface to shed light on historical problems. He is currently Director of the Lunar Section. http://www.baalunarsection.org.uk/whoswho.htm 15th March 2011 "The Liverpool Telescope: A Giant Robotic Eye on the Sky" by Michael Bode. Michael is Professor of Astrophysics and Director of the Astrophysics Research Institute at Liverpool John Moores University. Out and About With the Manchester Astronomical Society 1st August Space Day at the Museum of Science and Industry (M.O.S.I.), supported by the M.A.S. with Barry and Tony in attendance at the M.A.S. stand, the images of the Godlee Observatory are always a focal point of the display, along with 3D images which always draw a lot of attention. Space images were on hand for the younger members of the public to take home; the days was also a celebration of Yuri Gagarin’s first flight into Space and his visit to Manchester, Barry and myself were busy answering questions from both parents and children relating to Astronomy and Space. 3rd August Guide Day at the Museum of Science and Industry (M.O.S.I.), supported by the M.A.S. with Barry and Tony in attendance. Situated next to the Planetarium we had a very busy day as Guides from all over the country were in constant procession for the shows that were put on, Barry and myself had to be on top form as we were tested to the full with probing questions from a very enthusiastic audience, as the day drew to a close the display was stored away in the knowledge that another M.A.S. event had been a success. 3 October Science 8th Day Astronomy and Space at the Museum of Science and Industry (M.O.S.I.), 10.30 -- 3.30 Looks like this will be a very good event, followed by a Family Gathering in the evening, which will be hosted by the B.B.C. with guest stars, and you will be able to don fancy gear and dress up like a Spaceman/Woman/Alien. There is bound to be a big demand for tickets, I suggest that you contact M.O.S.I for ticket details. You can be sure the M.A.S. will be present at this all day event. Anthony W Cross. M.A.S. A Thursday evening review July 14 2011 This was a general meeting where members were invited to show their recent photographs. Barry Henshall showed 4 images of a Sundog taken on the 9th June 2011 at Canterbury whilst Kevin Kilburn continued his survey of the night sky for Noctilucent Clouds. He showed a number of images and estimated that the clouds were some 150-200 miles away to the North East. Tony Cross continued with some daylight shots of a Circumzenithal Arc and Sundogs photographed in the centre of Manchester again on the 9th of July 2011. The lesson – always carry a camera. Janet Maresh showed some pictures taken at Herstmonceux during a recent visit. The evening was brought to a close with a brief discussion about Current Notes and its recent issue as an electronic document. This form of distribution was well received. A suggestion ensured and a proposal was made to issue Current Notes quarterly but this would rely entirely upon members contributing articles. It was also suggested that Council should consider a monthly/bimonthly newsletter. July 21 2011 Michael Gilligan discusses in more detail using the Winter Hill transmitter for calibration purposes and Tony Cross showed more examples of atmospheric phenomena. There was also a general discussion about Current Notes and our website with the thought that an area of the site could be used rather than a monthly/bimonthly newsletter as discussed the previous week. July 28 2011 Tony Cross hosted the meeting, and opened with apologies from Barry Henshall and Mike Oates. The first speaker was Marc Gyssens, from Belgium; Professor of Computer Science and an enthusiastic amateur Astronomer. Marc manages "Urania" which is one of several public observatories in Flanders. < 4 http://www.urania.be/english/index.php > Situated about 10 km South of Antwerp, Urania also has the use of the Planetarium at Antwerp Zoo. Direct funding from central and local Government covers the major costs, and staffing is by volunteers. The Flanders region seems particularly well-provided with Planetaria, including a 3D one at Ghent. Unfortunately the skies are not particularly dark, due to prolific "linear" housing development, and lighted Motorways. Note that, in the interests of cost-saving the Politicians in Genk {yes, that's Genk, not Ghent} are reducing the lighting on Motorways, so the seeing should improve. Janet Maresh presented SkyNotes, concentrating upon the Summer Triangle region, and recommending the use of a sun-lounger when viewing with binoculars. Kevin Kilburn showed some recent pictures of the increased activity on the Sun, and of Comet Garrad [which is near M15]. For the benefit of our guest, Kevin also gave a brief run through of the history and key features of the Godlee. David Nicholson then completed the SkyNotes with a review of the current state of Space Exploration. ... Keep an eye on this: < http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/ > we should see some impressive pictures! 4 August 2011 Mike Oates demonstrated how to manipulate RAW images prior to conversion to a JPEG format. This allows much higher quality images to be produced, showing greater tonal range and detail. If you cannot justify purchasing Adobe CS5 for RAW data manipulation then there are many programmes available on the internet. Mike suggests ‘Googling’ Camera Raw to find this type of software. Mike also mentioned the following: - Capture One www.phaseone.com, DxOptics Pro www.dxo.com and Oloneo www.oloneo.com but these require a monetary outlay. Alternatively you could try using the software that is normally packaged with your camera. However which way you choose use RAW to get the image as best you can before converting to an alternative format for manipulation in Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro etc. Finally the RAW image file can be converted to a DNG file (Digital Negative file) available free from Adobe and then opened in Photoshop.